Category Archives: Yes we’ve got a VIDEO!

It’s been a long while between posts as life built to a crescendo the past month or so, but I haven’t been sitting idle. I’ve actually made a new friend called Vine; a program which gives you six magical seconds of video footage. You can shoot 6 seconds straight or you can get into some tricky stop-motion animation. So my mind, of course, turned to football.

Below are some short video’s or ‘Vines’ I’ve compiled from some old football books, Football for Boys and How to Play Football Australian Style. Theses old books would demonstrate the skills of the game using a series of photographs displaying each skill. So I thought to myself…let’s animate it.

Below are such heroes as EJ Whitten, Peter McKenna, Peter Bedford, John Dugdale and more, their still shots now brought to life. Please enjoy the following 18 seconds! For some reason the videos default to mute. You can hear the fairly unimpressive sound by hovering your mouse in the top left hand corner.

As I was looking through some old videos lying about the house, I stumbled across some of my grandpa Harold’s finest work from the year 1990, when as a family, we headed (with friends) to the MCG for the round 12 clash between the Tiges and the Saints. This was before my little brother Pete had become a Footscray follower, so there’s some rare footage of him in yellow and black, bouncing on my mother’s knee.

About to leave for the footy with our Richmond supporting friends. I am extreme left, my sister right. Behind sat our mode of transport that day, the rusty old Kingswood

As fate would have it, my mother also had her camera on the go this day, so our expedition was documented in far greater detail than usual. In fact one of my earliest posts was of a photograph taken this round 12 clash.

One of the intriguing aspects of the video is the dismantling of the old Southern Stand. As you can see, the roof was being removed, the Richmond cheer squad shunted around to the wing for a portion of the year.

Also worth looking out for is Michael Mitchell’s sensational goal at the 2 min 50 sec mark, yours truly taking great pride in his flag at 5:56, and the Richmond supporter being escorted from the ground by the police at 6:10. There are many other gems such as the prevalence of Sweathog apparel and cigarette smoke, both severely lacking from the modern game.

To the left is grandpa Harold in his Essendon beanie, video camera in hand

My one year old son Richie joined our family footy tipping competition this year. My dad has been running it for 22 years, people have come and gone, but I can officially say that Richie is our youngest ever tipster. And what a start he made, tipping 8 out of 9 in round one of this season…beginners luck or does he just have the knack?

So here is how little Rich tips. Some use their heads, some their hearts. Rich uses his…..I don’t really know? Just watch!

Here’s a gem of a video I found in an opportunity shop…it’s titled ‘150 goals’. A short film by Michael Nicholson (1985) sees Fitzroy and Collingwood do battle as never before-; in and around the streets of Melbourne. It’s footy meets Monty Python as play takes us to Flinders St, the old Planetarium and Parliament house, players ducking and weaving trains and trams.

One passage of play even enters a time warp and takes place in the early 1900’s, while a skyscraping mark is taken atop….a skyscraper! (Rialto towers under construction) Watch for the special cameo by Cliff Young. For Melbourne and footy lovers…can the two be separated?

As I slowly digitise my extensive VHS collection, I stumble across the odd gem or two. And this, I consider to be a gem. ‘Small Tales and True’ was a series broadcast on the Comedy Channel in 1998, featuring amongst others Robyn Butler, Bob Franklin, Stephen Curry and Roz Hammond.

Each episode focused on a different aspect of Australian life in a mock-documentary style. This particular episode, Tigerland, focussed on the behind the scenes politics of the Richmond Football Club cheersquad. The episode centres on a battle for position of chief ‘slogan-writer.’ As you can see in parts, my video cassette was on it’s last legs when copied, so apologies for a few wonky moments. Enjoy

The year 1990 saw Richmond’s Michael Mitchell win both the mark and goal of the year. Here is his mark against Fitzroy on Anzac Day (yes, Richmond v Fitzroy on Anzac Day!) I was at the ground as a wee fellow in the top deck of the old southern stand, and remember the mark vividly. The video does not do it justice! This was taped by my nana and pa as we didn’t have a VCR as yet! Enjoy